Comparative Social Policy Practice Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, methodologies, and theories of comparative social policy as presented in the lecture modules.

Comparative Social Policy (CSP)

The systematic analysis and comparison of social policies, processes, outputs, and outcomes across different political jurisdictions.

Welfare State (Broad Definition)

A society where the government provides or pays for a full range of social protections designed to educate the population, support health, maintain income security, and promote social justice.

Social Policy

Public policy directly focused on influencing the social circumstances or well-being of individuals, governing programs like housing, health, and social security.

Large-N Studies

Comparative studies involving many jurisdictions, typically using quantitative analysis and focusing on a limited range of variables to test theories.

Small-N Studies

Studies focusing on a small number of jurisdictions (sometimes as few as two) using holistic, multivariate, and often qualitative methods known as thick description.

Most Similar System Design (MSSD)

A methodology that compares jurisdictions with similar contexts to explain why a specific outcome occurs in some but not others.

Most Different System Design (MDSD)

A methodology that compares jurisdictions with high diversity to find common explanatory factors for a shared outcome or policy choice.

Contextualization

The requirement that an in-depth understanding of social, cultural, economic, and political context must be a precondition for successful cross-national analysis.

Universalism

The assumption that social phenomena have characteristics or principles that can be identified and applied across different historically similar contexts.

Relativism

The view that social reality and the concept of progress are conditioned by specific cultural, spatial, and temporal factors.

Residual Welfare Model

A model where social welfare is a last resort, providing meagre and temporary benefits only when the market and family systems fail.

Industrial Performance Achievement Model

A model where social welfare serves as an adjunct to the economy, with benefits provided as rewards based on merit, productivity, and work performance.

Institutional Redistributive Model

A model where social welfare is an essential moral imperative of the state, focusing on wealth redistribution and universal services to support equality.

Decommodification

The extent to which social policy measures allow individuals to maintain a livelihood without being exclusively dependent on the job market.

Stratification

The way a welfare state maintains and reinforces existing class structures or creates new social hierarchies, such as the distinction between deserving and undeserving poor.

Liberal Welfare Regime

A regime where labour decommodification is a low priority, benefits are modest with strict eligibility, and the state focuses on market efficiency.

Conservative Welfare Regime

Also called corporatist; a regime that provides social welfare but seeks to maintain and reinforce traditional status quo and class-based stratification.

Social Democratic Welfare Regime

A regime characterized by universal programs and generous benefits aimed at securing maximal equality through income redistribution.

Policy Convergence

The increase in similarity between policy characteristics, objectives, or settings across different jurisdictions over a period of time.

Isomorphism

The idea that social policies will eventually look similar when two or more jurisdictions face identical geopolitical, economic, or demographic conditions.

Policy Transfer

The intentional process where knowledge of policies and administrative arrangements from one setting is used to develop policies in another.

Privatization

The transfer of assets, services, functions, and responsibilities from the government or public bodies to the private sector.

Enclosures

Historical movements in the 18th and 19th centuries where common lands were closed off for private, exclusionary ownership.

Remunicipalization

The process by which municipalities reverse private sector involvement to return services, such as water delivery, to public control.

Gini Coefficient

A statistical measure of income dispersion where a score of $0$ represents absolute equality and a score of $1$ represents absolute inequality.

Market Income

Income earned from business, employment, investments, or pensions before taxes and benefits.

Disposable Income

The income remaining after taxes have been paid and government welfare benefits have been received.

The Virtuous Circle

The idea that social welfare investments lead to greater well-being and equality, which in turn benefits the economy through stability and profits.

Environmental Paradox of the Welfare State

The conflict where the welfare state requires economic growth for fiscal sustainability, but that growth prevents ecological sustainability.

Just Transition

The goal of transitioning to a low-carbon economy while ensuring equity, social justice, and collective social welfare provision.

Universal Basic Income (UBI)

A periodic cash payment unconditionally delivered to all individuals in a community without a means-test or work requirement.

Negative Income Tax

A variant of basic income where individuals whose income falls below a threshold receive a payment from the government through the tax system.

Doctrine of Discovery

A principle based on 15th-century papal decrees stating that lands not inhabited by Christians were terra nullius and could be claimed by Christian rulers.

Indian Act of 1876

Canadian legislation that extinguished Indigenous forms of self-government and formalized a process for Indigenous people to be subjects and assimilated.

Gladue Principles

A set of Canadian legal principles requiring courts to consider an Indigenous offender’s background and the history of colonization during sentencing.